All the hype suggests that with each New Year we should, somehow, inherently wrangle a new person out of our previous selves to meet some societal idea of what we should be. You’ve heard the mantra “New Year, New Me.” where we are urged to shed one mask for another. Well, I’ve had enough of that. In the end, what do we actually accomplish?

I spent years of my life in hiding. Not like witness protection hiding, where you are hiding because you are part of something bigger than yourself, but the kind of hiding where you’re fine never leaving a mark. Never. Leaving. A. Mark. (Let that sink in for a minute.)